


He swore he was in paradise

by Bubulona



Category: Dark (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate universe where this couple has a happy ending, Charlotte is under a year old, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I promise a happy ending, Mentions of Time Travel, Paradise, Paradise is real, Season 2 spoilers, Season 3 Spoilers, Series Spoilers, They're Married and Happy, a little bit of angst (but not really), adult Elisabeth, adult Hanno/Noah, because they grew on me, domestic life, she's happy too
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-03
Updated: 2020-07-03
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:40:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25056343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bubulona/pseuds/Bubulona
Summary: "But all that pain and suffering is now forgotten and forgiven. We’re together and we’re happy."or,Hanno found himself in paradise.
Relationships: Elisabeth Doppler/Noah | Hanno Tauber
Comments: 14
Kudos: 101





	He swore he was in paradise

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Dark. If I did, I wouldn't be writing fanfiction and some things would be different. This wonderful and complicated series belongs Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese and Netflix. 
> 
> I don't know American Sign Language, German Sign Language or German. I know that the grammar and syntax are different from what I wrote. I took some artistic liberties but I mean no disrespect. Feel free to comment. 
> 
> Spoilers for the whole series.
> 
> Read at your own risk. 
> 
> or, 
> 
> I really just wanted to give this family a happy ending because "Tell me about paradise" took over my heart.

Once he found out the truth, he knew what he had to do. He had finally figured out what his role in all of this truly was, why he had to go through all the hard moments.

He had to stop _him_ ; he had to stop the reason for all this pain and suffering, the reason for the existence of the hell they were living in.

It didn’t matter if he had to dirty his hands – he had done worse for the sake of achieving his promise. He could and would do worse if it meant that he could save them and take them to paradise.

The man in front of him was not his friend – _he_ never was. This monster had used him, his family and everyone for _his_ own selfish purposes. So long as he lived, he was never going to let his family be pawns in this complicated game anymore.

He was going to kill this man (or what was left of _him_ ). If he tried hard enough, he could look past _his_ old disfigured face, which was evidence of _his_ crimes, ambitions, sins, and false promises throughout the years, and he might see what used to be his friend. In a time of darkness, _he_ had been his only friend besides Elisabeth. If he tried hard enough and did not let his desperation and hatred blind him, he might have seen a broken and lonely boy who had lost everyone _he_ loved, a boy who had an endless cycle of suffering, a boy who at first glance could be taken as an angel with _his_ golden hair, _his_ earnest blue eyes, and _his_ rare but warm smile.

But the man in front of him was not that same boy. No, this man, who had once been the physical representation of an angel to those around _him_ , had become the one and only devil.

He had made up his mind; he was going to kill this demon, the very one soul who had taken everything from him and had made so many people suffer cycle after cycle, whose only plan was to destroy everything and everyone in it. _He_ didn’t believe in salvation… _he_ only believed in damnation. 

He must stop _him_. For everyone’s sake… for Elisabeth’s and their baby Charlotte.

The devil stares at him with a look that is both full of mockery and pity. He feels a sense of determination like he has never felt before flow through his body. With that newfound feeling, he aims the gun at the devil. He is about to shoot the man but…

But the gun won’t work; it’s stuck. And although he’s trying to make it work, he can’t. He can hear the devil’s condescending words, can see the picture of Elisabeth with her fox hat in the demon’s hands, can sense other footsteps in the room, can realize where this is going…

He’s panicking and his fingers won’t stop shaking.

Scheiße…

And just when there are enough bad feelings, he sees his sister, Agnes, and everything clicks in.

She places her cold hand on his cheek and takes the gun from him. She looks at the devil and suddenly he just knows what will happen.

This can’t be… this can’t be happening…

He’s going to die.

He can’t die.

He can’t.

He made a promise… he needs to fulfill it. He promised to stop this madness and go to paradise.

He can’t fail now, not when he’s so close.

Scheiße…

He hears a bang. It’s not loud like he expected it to be, but it takes him a moment to realize that he got shot.

It’s a weird feeling, knowing that he got shot and was about to die. It’s weird hearing the bang but not actually feeling the bullet hit him. It’s hard to belief that this was happening, that this was the end, that he was falling down, that tears and blood were running down his cheek and that he couldn’t reach for her photo. That he would never see them again. That this was the end of their story when it was just the beginning.

And before he could take his last breath, he prays to God, to any divine being that would listen to his desperate prayer, to anyone that would grant him his last wish. He prays to a being he doesn’t necessarily believe but can’t help but cling to in his last moments.

He prays that he would wake up from this nightmare and bring them along with him. He prays that if he couldn’t make it, to at least let Elisabeth and their baby go to paradise because in his eyes they deserved it. They belong in paradise and not whatever the hell this place is. He bargains that he would gladly accept this place as hell, that he would accept his fate, just so that Elisabeth and Charlotte could be saved and live happily, away from all this pain and suffering.

And he draws his last breath.

Hanno woke up desperately gasping for air, cold with sweat, and with his right hand on his chest where the wound would have been. Although the room was bright with soft yellows from the morning sunlight, the brightness only reminded him of the darkness from which he had woken up from.

Before he could tell himself that it had only been a nightmare – his version of hell – he placed his left hand to the side of the bed where Elisabeth should have been. His hand felt no warm body, just crumpled cold sheets. He turned his eyes towards the crib on the side of the room and as he stood up to check on baby Charlotte, his heart pounding so loud he swore the world could hear it, he realized that the crib was empty.

A chilling sense of dread and panic washed over him.

Elisabeth? Charlotte?

He quickly got out of his room in search of his family.

They had to be here.

This wasn’t another nightmare, was it?

Although he knew Elisabeth was deaf, it didn’t stop him from calling their names several times in hopes of obtaining some sort of response. Maybe Charlotte would make a sound and let him know where they were. Maybe his loud footsteps would cause enough vibration for Elisabeth to notice that something was wrong. Hanno found himself repeating the prayer from the dream.

And at last he reached the kitchen.

Hanno could swear, and would swear until the day he died, that he saw the most beautiful vision ever.

There by the table were his wife and their child. The sunlight coming from the windows made its way to the top of Elisabeth’s long blonde hair, giving it the appearance of a halo. In her loving arms was the sweetest baby Hanno had ever seen; her chubby little hands trying to grab onto her mother’s hair while she was being fed. Charlotte’s blue eyes, the same as Hanno’s, were intensely focused on her mother while Elisabeth smiled adoringly at her. Despite Charlotte’s attempts, her hands couldn’t latch onto her mother’s hair and Elisabeth couldn’t help but chuckle lightly while wishing to kiss her baby’s forehead.

In that brief and bright moment in time Hanno believed that he had gotten a glimpse of paradise, even if it got blurry around the edges.

As if noticing that someone had entered the room, Elisabeth looked up to see her husband. The smile that had been present on her lips slowly disappeared as she noticed that Hanno had tears running down his cheeks and that his lips were set in a firm line.

Elisabeth moved Charlotte a little so she could sign.

“ _What’s wrong?_ ” Elisabeth asked. “ _Are you okay? Did something bad happen?_ ”

He didn’t reply but instead slowly got closer to them. As he reached them, he got down to his knees, cupped Elisabeth’s cheeks and carefully pressed his lips against hers. He then kissed Charlotte’s forehead with all the love he had, and as a result the baby made a delightful sound. Hanno found himself in paradise once again.

Elisabeth tapped his forearm and gave him a puzzled expression. 

He shook his head and gently stroked the top of Charlotte’s head. He pulled his hands away and looked back at Elisabeth.

“ _A nightmare,_ ” he signed with a shaky breath. “ _A very bad one. I think I saw hell._ ”

At the mention of hell Charlotte got fussy and looked like she was about to cry, almost as if she understood what the word entailed.

Elisabeth took one of his hands and squeezed it. Her light eyes were full of sympathy and love. Once she was done feeding Charlotte and made sure she got all of Charlotte’s gases out, Elisabeth placed her in Hanno’s arms and said, “ _It’s all okay now. While I cook, you take care of Charlotte. If you want, we can discuss your dream when we finish eating. Maybe you’ll feel better. I’m a little curious: what does hell look like?_ ”

He chuckled a little. Elisabeth had always been curious. That was one of the many things he loved about her. Her curiosity and stubbornness were a few of the reasons why they ever got to know each other. He knew she would want to know what the nightmare was about; he figured not only so she would know what had happened but because it might help him calm down as he was visibly troubled. Elisabeth held her sister’s belief that feelings and secrets within families should be expressed and shared because keeping things in the dark could tear families apart.

While he held their daughter is his arms and she looked straight into his eyes, his fears slowly faded away. How could he not feel better while holding her in his arms? How could he not feel better knowing that she was here with her family and not lost? How could he not feel better knowing that Elisabeth was happy in this life with them by her side?

As Hanno got lost in his daughter’s presence, Elisabeth got bread, marmalade, butter, ham, cheese, sausages, coffee, and some apples. She made it habit to always be the one to cut the apple into slices because if it were up to her husband a perfectly good apple would go to waste. So long as she’s known him, every time he ate an apple he would grab his pocketknife and only eat a little, throwing the rest away with the flick of his arm and walk away like some bad guy with a plan. To be honest, she didn’t know if he thought he looked cool, she thought he looked kind of silly.

After setting everything on the table, Elisabeth tapped his shoulder.

“ _Come. Breakfast’s ready._ ”

Although he could have taken Charlotte back to their bedroom and placed her in crib, he wanted her to be near them. Logically he knew that he would be able to hear if she started crying or if anything happened to her. He also knew that there was a monitor and several flashing lights that would alert him and Elisabeth of anything regarding their daughter. But the fears the nightmare were still lingering, and he gave Charlotte back to Elisabeth.

“ _I’ll be back,_ ” he said before he left the room. Moments later he brought the crib and placed it by the kitchen corner.

Elisabeth was even more confused but Hanno gave her a look that said he would explain everything later as he took Charlotte from her arms. He then gently laid Charlotte down in her crib and proceeded to sit down at the table to enjoy breakfast.

They ate in peace as they did most mornings; usually, after having breakfast, Charlotte would fall asleep, letting her parents eat without worries. This morning, Elisabeth was enjoying some toast with marmalade and sausages while Hanno was having a ham and cheese sandwich with some apples on the side. Elisabeth searched for his hand across the table and brushed her thumb against it. Hanno smiled softly and took a bite of an apple slice. 

Once they were done eating and doing dishes, they both sat back down at the table.

“ _What was hell like?_ ” Elisabeth asked calmly. “ _You don’t have to share if you don’t want to._ ”

Hanno clenched his jaw and took a deep breath. By now the details had faded, but the important things from the nightmare remained. “ _I think I should. I might get it out of my head._ ”

But he found it hard to figure out where to start because now that some time had passed, he realized how confusing and complicated the nightmare had been. Luckily for him Elisabeth found a way to get the conversation going.

“ _Was hell like in the movies?_ ” she asked. “ _With fire and people in pain?_ ”

“ _It was…_ ” he searched for words, “ _horrible and confusing. Everything was a mess, everyone had endless suffering and pain. Your past, present, and future selves were walking around like they knew each other. And there was time travel._ ”

At the mention of time travel Elisabeth perked up and her eyes gained a spark. “ _Time travel? In hell?_ ”

He nodded but didn’t go further. Time travel, or anything scientific matter, was a common topic in his wife’s family.

“ _I think you paid Franziska too much attention the other day when she spoke about time travel, paradoxes, and quantum theory. It probably stayed in your mind._ ”

“ _Maybe,_ ” he replied, “ _but time travel was and wasn’t the problem. Things did and didn’t make any sense. The dream started off weird because I killed my father with a pickaxe over a difference in beliefs._ ”

Her eyes widened but then became sympathetic. She knew that he still felt guilty over the fact that his last words to his father had been within the context of a disagreement. “ _I’m really sorry about that. But remember that it isn’t your fault he died._ ”

Hanno shook his head and looked down. His hands became a little sloppy while signing the next part and found himself mouthing most of the words. “ _But that wasn’t it. Killing my father wasn’t the nightmare – it was just the beginning of hell. I was living in the past and there was this cult… I think…_ ” He paused before taking the courage to continue, “ _and I think I saw the devil._ ”

Elisabeth leaned forward. “ _The devil?_ ”

He nodded. “ _Yes, this disfigured man who controlled time travel. But the thing is… he was and wasn’t Jonas._ ”

“ _Jonas as the devil? Our Jonas? Your lifelong friend?_ ” She stifled a laugh, but it was hard not to think that as funny. She knew that Hanno and Jonas could disagree on some things, but they were best friends. Jonas was one of the nicest and most selfless people she knew. He could never be the devil; Jonas even looked like an angel. Jonas was such a genuinely nice person that she found it funny how he wasn’t even capable of hurting a fly without apologizing! What kind of devil could he be if he felt guilty over hurting a fly?

“ _That same Jonas,_ ” Hanno started. He knew better than anyone else how Jonas was furthest thing from a devil. It was easier for Hanno to believe that he could become a devil and not his friend Jonas; all the proof he needed came from their childhood. Whenever they did something stupid together as kids, Hanno was always the one coming up with the plans; Jonas just went along to make sure nothing bad happened to his friend. “ _Things happened. I went to the future – which is our past – and got inside a bunker with you, your father and two strangers. I got the feeling they were my father’s family. The apocalypse was coming._ ”

At the mention of the apocalypse little Charlotte stirred in her sleep. Hanno gently touched her cheek.

“ _The apocalypse?_ ” Elisabeth frowned. “ _Like in the Bible?_ ”

“ _It was different,_ ” Hanno said. Then he smiled lopsidedly. “ _But going into the bunker wasn’t bad. I opened the door in slow motion and looked at everyone before you and I shared eye contact. The chemistry between us was obvious. Everyone was jealous of us. We were Winden’s best soon-to-be couple._ ”

Elisabeth laughed and slapped his arm lightly. “ _Ha ha, hilarious. Are you sure you didn’t enter with an apple and pretended to be cool? Maybe the nightmare was realizing everyone thought you looked funny._ ”

He laughed with her and kissed her lightly.

“ _Was that the end?_ ”

Once again Hanno shook his head. “ _A lot of people died. I lived in the caves and you lived with your father. But that didn’t last long. Your father died trying to protect you and you came to me. You had lost your family. You were shaking and covered in blood._ ” Hanno’s face briefly got red with anger, his nostrils had flared and the vein by his left temple was visible. But one look at Elisabeth was all he needed to calm down and remember that it had been nothing but the worst nightmare he had ever had. “ _I was furious at whoever had hurt you. But once I saw you all I felt was sympathy and protectiveness. I never wanted you to go through that again. You were heartbroken._ ”

She placed her hand on his cheek and caressed his cheekbone with her thumb.

“ _We lived in the caves. We had a routine. We ate, searched for essentials, you taught me sign language, and I think we moved rocks. Even if it seemed never-ending, we were hopeful._ ” He stopped and brought her forehead against his. He closed his eyes and tried to center himself. He had yet to get the toughest part of the nightmare.

He moved away from her and with shaky hands and a trembling voice he continued his story, “ _But even if everything was dark and seemed to get worse, we still had each other. We had hope and we were as happy as we could be. But then Charlotte was kidnapped… and the dream truly became a nightmare._ ”

The idea of their daughter being taken away from them made Elisabeth stand up, close her eyes, take a deep breath in, and place her hands on her chest. Her expression became sad as she struggled not to think what a life without Charlotte would be, of how it would be to live with the uncertainty of not knowing where their daughter was or if she was alive.

Hanno also slowly stood up and brought his hands to her cheeks. Elisabeth opened her eyes and he felt his heart being crushed. She almost had the same broken expression as in the dream, almost as if a part of her soul had been taken away from her the moment their baby had disappeared. He never wanted her to have that expression. He brought her closer for a hug and ran a hand through her hair. He breathed in her smell and hugged her tighter, trying to control his own trembling as he recalled the nightmare and all its negative emotions.

As if sensing that he needed more comfort that she did, Elisabeth pulled away a little and stood strong as she said, “ _That would be the worst nightmare. But it was just a bad dream. We would never let that happen. We will always be together. Nothing could ever separate our family._ ”

He smiled at her reassuring words. But his eyes got watery. “ _It got worse. I promised I would get her back. I traveled. I did terrible things. I hurt people. I killed children. I became a monster, but I didn’t feel remorse. All I could think about was saving Charlotte. I went to the devil and gave him my soul. But at the end, he betrayed me. I tried to kill him, but some force wouldn’t let me. And then Agnes shot me, and I was about to die without keeping my promise. I died knowing I had broken my promise to you._ ”

Elisabeth once again placed her hands on his cheeks and gently brushed his tears away. He hadn’t noticed that he had started crying again, but Elisabeth didn’t judge him. Hanno rarely, if ever, cried. She knew the nightmare had taken its toll on him. She let him cry until he felt better. She then brought his fingers to her lips and kissed each one of them.

When he had calmed down a little, she let go of him and got a still sleeping baby Charlotte. Elisabeth handed him their daughter and his expression became a little happier and calmer. She kissed Charlotte’s forehead and then looked at her husband.

With a face full of determination and love, Elisabeth said, “ _That definitely is hell. I’m sorry you went through that. But all that pain and suffering is now forgotten and forgiven. We’re together and we’re happy. We’re in paradise Hanno. This is where we belong._ ”

They got closer and shared an embrace. Hanno closed his eyes and let a tear of happiness.

They were together and they were happy. Hanno would be forever thankful for this.

He would always be grateful for this paradise.

This was their paradise.

**Author's Note:**

> This ended being more cheesy than I wanted but I really wanted them to have a happy moment. In this world there is no time travel and all the mess it brings *cough* family trees *cough* *cough* endless manipulation and damnation *cough* *cough*.  
> I'm afraid that they are a little too out of character, but then again we mostly saw all the characters in the show be sad and angry. I don't think these two would be too sentimental or too much into PDA, but Hanno/Noah had a terrible nightmare and he needed some comfort. He wanted to make sure he was in paradise and not in hell. I'm also sorry if the beginning (the nightmare) was confusing.  
> Btw I love my boy Bartosz Tiedemann but in this one he died :( I promise that next time he'll be alive. 
> 
> I have more fanfics in progress (not only about these two but of others as well). 
> 
> Thank you reading!  
> Hope you like it :)


End file.
